Memories In Between These Sheets
by Between The Clouds
Summary: Izzie just wanted to remember. Mark just wanted to forget.


Memories In Between These Sheets

The male attending eagerly stepped through the doors of the hospital. He was in unfamiliar territory. He had never been in this building before. Earlier that day, he had been awakened by a phone call from his old friend from med school. The friend was an attending at another hospital, and he called him in for a favor; a special case that required the use of a world-class plastic surgeon. The doctor was unsure about the entire thing, but he was never one to back down form a challenge.

At the front desk, he put his most charming smile on the woman behind the counter. "A pleasure to meet you. Dr. Mark Sloan. I'm here for a friend, Dr. Manuel Quinn. Is he here?"

The woman looked at the wall beside her before turning back to the man. "He's with a patient at the moment. He told me to tell you that he would be there in a minute. You can take a seat over there, if you'd like."

Instead of sitting down, Mark leaned on the counter and grinned at the woman. "Oh, but I'd much rather be with you." The woman glared at him and continued doing whatever she was doing before Mark came in. However, he was undeterred. He continued to stand there and make suggestive comments towards the poor woman, who was trying her hardest to ignore him.

"Still up to your old tricks, huh, Sloan?" Just then, a deep voice came from behind Mark. He whirled around and came face to face with Dr. Quinn. A huge smile formed on both men's faces.

"Manny! Long time no see!" Mark patted the smaller man on the shoulder. "It's been at least five years. Where have you been, man?"

Dr. Quinn adjusted his glasses and stared up at Mark. "I've been here the whole time. Right after med school, I got an internship here, and I've been here ever since."

"I still can't believe you're specializing in OB-GYN. I thought you were planning on going into neuro or cardio."

"Things change."

Mark stared at his old classmate with awe. "Yeah, I guess they do," he said. "Anyway, let's get down to business. What do you need my help for?"

"The patient I'm working with is expecting triplets. Today. Due to major complications, each baby is going to born with severe birth defects. I was hoping that with your help, these babies might have a chance to lead normal lives." Dr. Quinn looked around the corner. "My resident is bringing the scans over right now."

At that moment, Mark spotted the resident coming over to them. His eyes widened in shock. The resident didn't look up until she had reached the two attendings, but when she did, her eyes widened as well.

"Dr. Stevens! It's been years!" Mark announced upon the resident's arrival.

Izzie Stevens stared at her former boss with surprise. "Dr. Sloan! I guess it has been a while, hasn't it?"

As the scene was unfolding, Dr. Quinn looked from Izzie to Mark in amusement. "I take it you two know each other?" he asked.

"We used to work at Seattle Grace together before Dr. Stevens got a job here. What a coincidence!" Mark filled in, still looking at Izzie.

"That's great. We should be able to get the job done quicker, then. Follow me this way, Dr. Sloan, Dr. Stevens." The previously mentioned doctors did as they were told and followed Dr. Quinn down the hallway leading to the patient's room.

* * *

><p>"So this is where you've been keeping yourself, huh?" Izzie looked up to see Mark grinning at her from behind her charts. It was 8:00 PM, and they had just completed the surgery on the triplets. Izzie smiled at Mark and went back to her charts.<p>

Mark looked her over again. Izzie looked a lot healthier than the last time he'd seen her. Her hair was longer; breast-length (because, obviously, that _would_ be the first place Mark looked) and she had bangs again. It was sort of like her hair when he first met her. She had her hair up in a bun while she was in surgery, but now that she had taken it out, her blonde hair fell down in loose waves. Her skin was radiant, and her face lit up every time she smiled. She was a beautiful woman. Mark had always known that.

"So, how are you doing?"

"I'm happy." As she said it, Mark knew it was the truth. She wasn't just pretending to be happy, she was happy. Not as happy as she was before she got cancer, or before George died, or before she left, but she was happy. That was good.

He moved closer to her. "What made you go into Addy's specialty?"

Izzie looked up at him again. "Oh, it was just something I thought I would be good at," she responded flippantly. The truth was, she was feeling lost after she had left Seattle for good, and she had no idea what she wanted to do. She remembered how Addison had told her she held promise for her specialty back when she was an intern. Due to her problems with Addison and her decision not to get tied down to one specialty so soon, she had never really taken Addison's offer. However, by the time she remembered all of this, she had come to respect the older woman and she considered OB-GYN. After all, she did love babies. It turned out it was meant for her all along. She loved her job and had Addison to thank for it.

"You know, you and Addy are a lot alike," Mark whispered. "You're both OB-GYNs, you're both divorced, you're both independent, sexy as hell, smart, and you both have the same taste in guys."

"One guy," Izzie corrected tiredly.

"Wanna make it two?" Mark grinned his Let's-Get-Dirty-In-A-Closet grin.

The blonde looked over the attending, appearing to think it over. "I don't see why not," she eventually said. She checked the clock on the opposite wall. "My shift is over. Just give me five minutes to change and we'll get out of here." Tossing him a flirty smile, she walked away. Mark looked taken aback. He was just having fun with her. He never thought she'd actually go for it. It looked like today was his lucky day.

A few minutes later, she came back. She smiled at him and tugged on his elbow. They strolled out of the hospital together. Mark breathed in as the night air hit him. It was a cool night. The perfect night for doing inappropriate things with inappropriate people. He grinned down at Izzie as she laughed out of nowhere and pulled harder on his elbow. Honestly, he was surprised that she was sober. The Izzie he sort-of used to know did a lot of things, but she wasn't known to sleep around. Mark briefly wondered what other things about her had changed in the years she was absent.

* * *

><p>She called out his name when she came. Immediately, she hated herself for it.<p>

Mark smirked at her. "You have me and you still want Karev? What is wrong with you, woman?"

She smirked back from her spot underneath him. "Well, if I'm having sex with you, obviously I have to pretend you're somebody else. I mean, seriously."

"Oh? Is that how it is?" The older man continued to smirk, but he couldn't help being somewhat hurt. It wasn't that he cared much about Izzie's feelings, but knowing that she was thinking of another man the entire time he was screwing her hurt his pride. "So you decided to pretend I was your ex-husband. Interesting choice."

At this, the blonde's smirk disappeared and she looked uncomfortable. "It doesn't mean anything. It's just something people say," she rambled, but she could see the other man wasn't convinced. He rolled off of her so he was lying beside her.

"Speaking of Karev, he isn't doing too badly these days," Mark whispered seductively in Izzie's ear. For some reason he couldn't quite explain, he wanted to hurt her. He couldn't understand how she could still be so whole after everything that had happened to her. Why wasn't she as broken as he was? He supposed, if he really thought about it, he wanted to hurt her because he wanted to feel a little less alone in that abnormally large bed. "He had a pretty nice relationship with Lexie after you left." Izzie looked confused, and Mark elaborated. "You know, after they slept together the night before you came back for the last time, they kept on doing it for quite a while. I heard it was very… enjoyable for the both of them." Taking in Izzie's horrified expression, he could tell that she had no idea about any of this until now.

"Alex slept with Lexie?" she whispered, looking crestfallen. A few seconds later, she managed to control her facial expressions enough to look nonchalant. She had no intention of letting Mark Sloan see her in pain. But by the time she covered it up, Mark had already seen. He felt a twinge of guilt for deliberately hurting her, but at the same time he received a queer satisfaction from it. Now they were both the same.

They laid there in silence for several minutes. Izzie's apartment was comfortable and homey. The bedroom was especially gorgeous. The room was a nice yellow colour, and dark furniture complimented the walls. The prettiness made up for its small size. Izzie stared up at the ceiling fan above her head for a few moments. Finally, she smirked and turned to the attending. "There, that's another thing Addison and I have in common. A Grey slept with both of our husbands before we were divorced. Wow, we're just so much alike! We could be twins or something!" She started laughing and Mark joined in. When he glanced over at her, he could see that the laughter didn't reach her eyes.

"So, who else has Alex been with?" Izzie propped herself up on one elbow, facing Mark. "I'm just curious. You know how it is." She grinned.

Deep in thought, Mark traced circles into the sheets. He gave Izzie a lazy grin. "I'm sure there were many one-night-stands along the way, but a few months ago he met a girl. She was from OB-GYN and he really liked her, or so I heard. Then they broke up for some reason and she left. That's all I know."

Throughout Mark's talk, Izzie stared up at the ceiling again. "He moved on," she stated once he had finished. "I'm happy." The attending wondered whether Izzie had heard the part about them breaking up. "That's good," Izzie continued. "I moved on too."

"To me?" Mark raised an eyebrow and the blonde scoffed.

"Well, clearly I'm not referring to you. I met a guy and we were together for about five months. We broke up a month and a half ago. He… he was nice." She still stared up at the ceiling as she spoke. She vaguely wondered why she was telling Mark this, but decided that she may as well because he was there.

"Why did you guys break up?"

He received no answer for what seemed like hours. Just as Mark was about to repeat the question, Izzie answered. "I'm so tired of this caring thing. Seriously. It's such a drag. I'm expected to care about everybody, but I don't have much caring left. God damn it, I had people! I don't have the time or the patience or the caring to care about new people! I can't have a boyfriend because I can't bring myself to care enough about him! I just… can't!" She took a deep breath and continued. "I believe that every person is born with a certain amount of caring, and there's a limit to how much thy can care. You can never really get it back once you lose it. Well, my limit has been exceeded."

Mark understood, or thought he understood. She spent so much time and energy caring about people back in Seattle, she could only care for so many people in Arlington. She neither had the caring or the love to have (another) romantic interest at the moment. Or maybe never. It was funny. He felt the same way.

Izzie sighed. She didn't expect Mark to understand. She couldn't expect any of them to understand her anymore. She used to know them. Now… she didn't know. Finally, she stared at Mark again with a small smile playing at her lips.

Mark laughed. "What?"

"What happened with you and Lexie? You were going out with her before I left, right? Did she cheat on you with Alex?"

The older man snorted. "It's complicated."

Izzie played with the sheets. "Isn't it always?" she murmured. Suddenly she looked up and caught Mark's expression. Her eyes widened and she laughed. "So all this time you were pining after Lexie, huh? Talk about double standards." Izzie said, smiling a little. Mark didn't say anything, because it's really not the same thing. He made an informed decision. Izzie made a mistake.

But the end result was the same.

"It feels so nice to come together and share our pain and heartbreak, doesn't it?" Mark whispered huskily. He leaned in to give her a sleazy kiss on the side of the mouth. Izzie immediately flinched away, a fact not unnoticed by Mark.

"You know, being single is awesome," Izzie started, ignoring Mark's last statement. "I don't have to dress up to try and impress anybody, I can do whatever I want with whoever I want, I can eat all I want because nobody is there to care how many pounds I gain, and I can stay out all night and not have to explain myself when I come home." Her life had been like this for so long that Izzie honestly didn't care anymore. Her relationship with Alex had left her drained. She was always and always would be the bitch who never cared about Alex as much as he cared about her. That had been the belief for so long, Izzie stopped caring about that too. It wasn't true; it was never true, but after everything that had happened, who would believe her? In a black and white world, she was all of a sudden pure black.

Mark was pure black, too. Nobody would argue otherwise. It was just the truth. Plain and simple. Unlike Izzie, he had been born into it.

He shuffled closer to her. "Being single also means that you can have sex with me whenever you want," he told her, smirking.

Izzie scoffed. "Please, like knowing that a woman is in a committed relationship ever stopped you before. You get while the getting's good."

"True," Mark conceded. "But you being in a committed relationship would stop _you_. I'm just lucky I caught you at the right time." He gave her one of his trademark sleazy grins. "Wanna go again?"

"Sure," Izzie responded, surprising the attending yet again. "But not today." With that, she pushed him off of the bed. "If you come back here, and if we're both single, I'm game." She smirked. "It's just one of the many merits of being single."

Mark grinned at her as he pulled on his pants. "I always knew I liked you. I'm looking forward to our next encounter. Have a nice day, Dr. Stevens." Once his clothes were on, he turned around and headed towards the front door.

"Have a nice day, Dr. Sloan," Izzie called just before he opened the door. "What a bastard," she muttered to herself. She was going to call him an ass, but that name was reserved for her ex-husband.

To think she could have been hanging out with her friends or doing something productive instead of screwing Mark Sloan. Izzie lay on the bed for a few minutes, then she rolled off and hit the floor. She made a mental note to change the sheets first thing tomorrow morning. There was no way she was sleeping in those sheets after that man-whore had infested them. If nothing else, it was bad hygiene.

She didn't regret it. It was strange. She thought she would. Sure, Mark was great in bed, but he was also somebody she used to know. He bridged the gap between Then and Now. He made her remember.

Remembering was never a bad thing.

The End.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I didn't want to write this. I wanted to write something Izzie/Alex, but there were so many ways to go about writing a story like that, I didn't know what I was going to choose, so I wrote this instead. For what it's worth, I don't believe Izzie would really sleep with Mark, but in this story she did because I wanted to show how her time away from Seattle Grace changed her (but not completely, because she's still Izzie). Also, no, I don't watch Grey's Anatomy anymore and I don't plan to, except maybe the series finale. I stopped watching after Izzie and George left, because they're my favourite characters and I can't watch the show without them. _Seriously_, what's Grey's Anatomy without the original five interns? Please read and review, because right now I kind of hate myself for making Izzie do the McNasty with McSteamy!

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Grey's Anatomy, I would have probably ended the series after season five. So no, I obviously don't own anything.


End file.
